Canadian country music artist and rising star Melissa Endean celebrates the release of her new single, Til We’re Dirt, a dark yet catchy song that pushes the boundaries of country music for a totally unique sound.
Produced by Dean Miller, the song is just one of the raw, gritty and deeply vulnerable tracks on his forthcoming EP that showcase the full extent of Melissa’s songwriting skills. Originally from Kamloops (Barnhartvale) in the interior of British Columbia, Melissa was raised in a family of professional musicians which included a grandfather who once toured with the legendary Johnny Cash. She is an independent artist with Tiger Music Productions and also launched a Kickstarter campaign to help fund her EP.
Til We’re Dirt is “about how we can overcome the devastation of addiction by holding on to those we care about most,” says Melissa. She wrote the song while working as a social worker in a medical detox unit after hearing “so many tragic stories every day about how alcohol had destroyed lives”.
She says she loves country music, but “so many songs glorify drinking and alcoholism. I wanted to write something that speaks to the true nature of addiction, as well as how people who we love are so important in our personal healing.” Melissa is an accomplished performer as well as a songwriter, with an instantly recognizable and distinctive vocal style that has enormous range and power, garnering frequent comparisons to Dolly Parton, Patty Griffin and Tammy Wynette. To date, Melissa has achieved notable success and has worked with many big names in the industry, including Jason Wilbur (John Prine) and Grammy Award-winning producer Chuck Turner (June Carter Cash-Wildwood Flower). As soon as she was old enough to speak, Melissa Endean was on stage, making her first public appearance as a country singer at just eight years old.
Melissa released her first EP aged just 18, as part of the family band, The Endean Sisters, to immediate success, with Endean’s first underground single, “Kiss My Canadian Ass”, quickly becoming a local hit. Slated for release later this year, Melissa’s highly anticipated EP will also include the feature “God’s Gonna Cut You Down”, a traditional American folk song made famous by Johnny Cash, which was recorded live at famed Cash Studios. Cabin in Hendersonville, Tennessee, by Grammy Award-winning Chuck Turner, on which Melissa can be heard playing one of Cash’s famous Martin guitars.
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/7gkpKWNMvPQ477UzjNloz7?si=dIv8hmkbR_-fyiFiyhxuiQ
iTunes:
https://music.apple.com/album/1639081712?app=itunes&ls=1
“Til We’re Dirt is about ‘how we can overcome the devastation of addiction by holding on to the ones we care about the most,” says Melissa. She wrote the song while working as a social worker in a medical rehab unit after hearing “so many daily tragic stories of how alcohol has destroyed lives.” She says she loves country music, but “so many songs glorify alcoholism and the alcoholism. I wanted to write something that spoke to the true nature of addiction, as well as how the people we love are so monumental in our personal healing.” Melissa is an accomplished performer as well as songwriter, with a vocal style instantly recognizable and distinctive, which carries tremendous reach and power, garnering frequent comparisons to Dolly Parton, Patty Griffin and Tammy Wynette.
To date, Melissa has achieved notable success and has worked with many big names in the industry, including Jason Wilbur (John Prine) and Grammy Award-winning producer Chuck Turner (June Carter Cash-Wildwood Flower). As soon as she was old enough to speak, Melissa Endean was on stage, making her first public appearance as a country singer at just eight years old. Melissa released her first EP aged just 18, as part of the family band, The Endean Sisters, to immediate success, with Endean’s first underground single, “Kiss My Canadian Ass”, quickly becoming a local hit.
Slated for release later this year, Melissa’s highly anticipated EP will also include the feature “God’s Gonna Cut You Down”, a traditional American folk song made famous by Johnny Cash, which was recorded live at famed Cash Studios. Cabin in Hendersonville, Tennessee, by Grammy Award-winning Chuck Turner, on which Melissa can be heard playing one of Cash’s famous Martin guitars. Until 2015, Melissa was an active member of the Canadian music scene, where her prolific and eclectic songwriting style caught the attention of many notable industry professionals.
Her full-length indie jazz album, “Authentic”, topped the Eastern Canadian music charts in 2009 and in 2013 she was selected as a finalist for the prestigious Peak Performance Project in British Columbia. In 2014, Melissa further honed her songwriting skills by writing and releasing the 6-track electronic EP, “Enlightened” under the stage name Elah, which was co-written and produced by Alex Aligizakis ( Nickleback, REM), Leon Feldman (Glass Kites), Sikander Hayes and acclaimed Juno-nominated singer-songwriter and producer Luca Fogale. However, as a result of this project, Melissa was forced to let her music career take a back seat in order to focus on adjusting to life as a new, young mother.
In early 2022, after a five-year hiatus from the music industry, Melissa returned to her roots as a country musician and returned to the music scene with unbridled and unapologetic passion reflected in a collection of songs. with heartbreaking honesty and emotion. pure tracks that speak to the potential of neo-traditional, outlaw country. Within weeks of re-entering the music industry, she was invited into the studio by award-winning Nashville producer Dean Miller (Dolly Parton, Allison Krauss, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Terri Clark, Kacey Musgraves).
